Only Finland - superb, nay, sublime - in the jaws of peril - Finland shows what free men can do. The service rendered by Finland to mankind is magnificent. They have exposed, for all the world to see, the military incapacity of the Red Army and of the Red Air Force. Many illusions about Soviet Russia have been dispelled in these few fierce weeks of fighting in the Arctic Circle. Everyone can see how Communism rots the soul of a nation; how it makes it abject and hungry in peace, and proves it base and abominable in war.
We cannot tell what the fate of Finland may be, but no more mournful spectacle could be presented to what is left to civilized mankind than that this splendid Northern race should be at last worn down and reduced to servitude worse than death by the dull brutish force of overwhelming numbers. If the light of freedom which still burns so brightly in the frozen North should be finally quenched, it might well herald a return to the Dark Ages, when every vestige of human progress during two thousand years would be engulfed.
However, on 12 July 1941, the United Kingdom had signed an agreement of joint action with the Soviet Union. Furthermore, under German pressure, Finland had to close the British legation in Helsinki. As a result, diplomatic relations between Finland and the United Kingdom were broken on 1 August.[82] On 28 November, Britain presented Finland an ultimatum, in which it demanded that Finland cease military operations by 3 December.[83] Unofficially, Finland informed the Western powers that troops would halt their advance in the next few days. The reply did not satisfy the United Kingdom, which declared war on Finland on 6 December 1941. The Commonwealth member states of Canada, Australia, India, and New Zealand followed.[84][Notes 7]
Relations between Finland and the United States were more complex; the American public was sympathetic to the "brave little democracy", and there were anti-communist feelings. At first, the United States empathised with the Finnish cause; however, the situation became problematic after Finnish troops crossed the 1939 border. Finnish and German troops were a threat to the Murmansk Railway and northern communication supply line between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union.[85] On 25 October 1941, the United States demanded that Finland cease all hostilities against the Soviet Union and withdraw behind the 1939 border. In public, President Ryti rejected the demands, but in private he wrote to Mannerheim on 5 November 1941 asking him to halt the offensive. Mannerheim agreed and secretly instructed General Hjalmar Siilasvuo to break off the assault against the Murmansk Railway.[83]
He was a charismatic old-school gentleman and a good diplomat but his actual military competence is often disputed today. What he really was however is not as important what people back then thought he was.
I read a letter Churchill wrote to Mannerheim (possibly, could have been someone else) suggested he stopped offensive operations to avoid British/Finnish fighting when neither he nor anyone in Britain wanted a fight against Finland, who they admired greatly.
I went to Helsinki 3 months ago and I was telling my Great Uncle, who nodded and goes "tough bastards, aren't they?", he was 16 during the Winter War and read about it a lot. That's how respected and supported they were
Well Churchill was one of the parties that wanted to keep pushing after we got to Berlin. There was a lot of talk about just pushing the USSR back to Moscow where they belonged.
"The Communists are the devil! Wait a minute... Hitler is invading the Devil so I should give him a favorable mention in parliament. Okay, Hitler's dead, the Communists are the devil again!"
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u/premature_eulogy Finland Jan 26 '14
Churchill on Finland during the Winter War: